Spinal cord injuries and surfing aren’t regularly paired together in the same sentence, but for 100 kids who are wheelchair bound, they got the chance to ride some waves.
Thanks to They Will Surf Again, those with spinal injuries and about 300 volunteers made a surf day possible at Virginia Beach.
Cole Syndor lost his ability to walk after being involved in a diving accident, but he took to the water again for the first time in five years.
“I was real nervous. I can’t even speak right now,” Syndor told KCTV News. “I had a good squad around me. And they eased my nerves and I’m riding some waves.”
They Will Surf Again is a program within Life Rolls On, an organization that makes surfing and skating opportunities available to wheelchair athletes. The group was founded by world champion quadriplegic surfer Jesse Billauer in 2001.
“They feel a sense of weightlessness in the water, where they’re not feeling like they’re heavy, stuck in a wheelchair,” Billauer said in this Life Rolls On video. “They’re flying on the water. It’s something you can’t do on land.”
And by the looks of it, the kids on Virginia Beach had the time of their lives.
